Cigarette filter materials

ABSTRACT

A cigarette having a filter prepared by kneading a mixture of gluten and wheat flour with water, baking the kneaded mixture, and crushing the backed product into coarse grains of less than 60 mesh.

- United States Patent Takenaka et al.

[4 June 20, 1972 [54] CIGARETTE FILTER MATERIALS [72] Inventors: Sadao Takenaka; Soichiro Kishida; Yoiehi Yamauki, all of Kyoto, Japan Nippon Cloth Industry Co., Ltd., Kyoto, Japan 221 Filed: Jan. 13,1970

2| App1.No.: 2,619

[73] Assignee:

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Jan. 13, 1969 Japan ..44/2488 [52] U.S. Cl. ..l31/261 R, 131/265, 131/267 [51 Int. Cl ..A24b 15/02, A24-d 01/06 [58] FieldofSearch ..131/l0.7, 10.9, 261 R, 265

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,804,874 9/1957 Visnick ..131'/1'0."7'

1,845,264 2/1932 Grunauer ..13l/17RX 2,928,399 3/1960 Touey ..131/266 OTHER PUBLICATIONS Rose, A. E., Rose Condensed Chemical Dictionary 6th Ed. Reinhold Publish. Co. New York 1962 pg. 540 cited.

Primary Examiner-Samuel Koren Assistant Examiner-G. M. Yahwak 1 Attorney-Sughrue, Rothwell, Mion, Zinn & Macpeak [5 7] ABSTRACT A cigarette having a filter prepared by kneading a mixture of gluten and wheat flour with water, baking the kneaded mixture, and crushing the backed product into coarse grains of less than 60 mesh.

4 Claims, 1 Drawing Figure CIGARETTE FILTER MATERIALS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1 Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a material used as an adsorbent for cigarettes or tobaccos (which will hereinafter be referred to as cigarette filter material). In particular, the present invention relates to a cigarette filter material prepared from gluten and wheat flour.

Moreover, the invention relates to a cigarette having a mouthpiece containing the cigarette filter material as an adsorbent as well as for cigarette holders or tobacco pipes in which the cigarette filter material is used as an adsorbent.

2. Description of the Prior Art Cigarettes with filters have been in use for some time. In 1950, a cigarette with filter, that is, a cigarette having a mouthpiece containing a filter or adsorbent material began to be commercially sold and since that time the demand for such cigarettes has been increasing gradually. This increase is partially caused by the announcement by medical or hygienical groups that smoking has some relation to the growth of lung cancer and that the adsorbing or filtering of nicotine and irritating matter by an adsorbent is in the general interest of smokers.

The present inventors have succeeded in making a cigarette filter material capable of providing a very suitable smoking taste which is fitted to the requirement of smokers and which has low resistance to permeability and a high adsorbability of tar.

Prior known cigarette filter materials which are employed are:( l) acetate fibers, (2) fibers rolled tubularly within a roll of paper, (3) a roll of piled crape papers, (4) a roll of piled pipe sheet, (5) a mouthpiece filled with cotton, (6) a roll of a laminate of thin cotton cloth and paper, (7) a layer of activated carbon, and (8) a mixture of activated carbon and acetate fibers or paper. These materials are used along or in layers of a combination of two or three kinds of materials, or two or three layers of the aforementioned materials.

However, these known filter materials have the following faults: (1) they lack high filterability while at the same time satisfying smokers taste and reducing the bad influences on health, (2) they fail to remove selectively by adsorption, hygienically harmful matter in the smoke of the cigarette, such as nicotine and other irritative material, and (3) they negate the cigarettes aroma while providing some filtering effect. Thus, cigarette filter materials which can sufficiently satisfy the requirement of smokers have not yet been produced.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The inventors have discovered, during the investigation of various kinds of proteins, that they have a high adsorbability for gases. As the result of various studies, the inventors have succeeded in obtaining a cigarette filter material having both a high filtering efficiency and a very excellent smoking taste.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an improved cigarette filter material which has a high filter efficiency for nicotine and other irritative matter in the smoke of cigarettes or tobaccos and at the same time providing an excellent smoking taste for the smoker.

Another object of this invention is to provide a cigarette having a mouthpiece containing the cigarette filter material.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a cigarette holder or a tobacco pipe having a filter portion containing the cigarette filter material.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING The drawing is a device for testing the filter material of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT According to the present invention, there is provided a cigarette filter material prepared by kneading gluten and wheat flour with water and then baking the kneaded mixture.

A mixture of gluten and wheat flour in various mixing ratios was sufficiently kneaded with water. The mixture was then baked in an oven and the product was crushed to 60 mesh. The tar adsorption rate of the adsorbent thus obtained was measured by the method set forth in the following example using the test device shown in the FIGURE. The test device of the FIGURE will be explained in detail later. The results of the test are as follows:

Mixing ratio of gluten Filled Amount of Adsorption to wheat flour amount tar adsorbed rate of tar y s e) a) l 5 74.1 47.8 65 Filter of High Light 70.0 18.2 26

From these results, it has been confirmed that when the mixing ratio of gluten to wheat flour was higher than 1 2, the adsorption rate was maximum. Further, if the proportion of gluten was increased over this value, the adsorption rate did not also increase. Furthermore, when the mixing ratio of gluten to wheat flour was lower than I 2, the adsorption rate decreased as the proportion of wheat flour was increased. However, even in such cases, the adsorption rate of the material was better than that of filter material on commercially available cigarettes.

If the mixing ratio of gluten to wheat flour was increased over 2 1, it became difficult to prepare the adsorbent.

Thus, when the cigarette filter material of the present invention was prepared by sufficiently kneading gluten and wheat in a mixing ratio of from 1 1.5 to 2 l with water and then baking the kneaded mixture, it showed an excellent adsorption rate for tar as shown above. Also, when the cigarette filter material was used as a filter or an adsorbent for cigarettes, it showed no resistance to the passage of smoke, the filter did not degrade the taste of the cigarette smoke, and it fit the requirement of smokers.

The filter material of the present invention may be effectively used as a filter for smoking pipes or a filter material for the mouthpiece of cigarettes. The filter material may be used in smoking pipes or used as a filter material for the mouthpiece of cigarettes after it has been crushed into coarse grains of less than 60 mesh. Further, the cigarette filter material of the present invention may be used together with other filter materials.

One embodiment of the present invention is shown by the following example but it should be understood that the invention is not limited to this embodiment.

EXAMPLE Lite" by using the test device shown in the Figure. The results of the comparison are shown in the following table. In the test, a Japanese cigarette by the name of Ikoi" was employed.

Amount of Amount of filter tar adsor- (mg.) bed (mg) Adsorption Feeling rate for or taste tar Filter of "High Lite 103.6 25.6 24.7 good Filter of the Invention 105.0 94.6 90.1 very good The test device used above and shown in the Figure is as follows:

A water tank is equipped with a control cock 2. A rubber plug 3 is plugged in the opening of the tank 1 and a bent glass tube 4 is inserted in the plug until the end of the glass tube 4 opens into the tank. The opposite end of the glass tube 4 is connectedto one end of a glass tube 7 by means of a rubber tube 5. The other end of the glass tube 7 is connected, by means of a rubber tube 8, to a funnel 9 for holding a cigarette [0. The inside diameter and the length of the glass tube 7 are 6 mm. and 35 mm., respectively. A filter sample 6 is placed in the central portion of the glass tube 7. In operation, the smoke of the lit cigarette 10 is sucked into the tank 1 through the filter 6 by permitting the water in the tank 1 to flow out through the cock 2. In this example, the opening of the cock 2 is so controlled that the volume of air sucked into the tank through the filter is 1,000 ml./ 3.5 min. This volume is required for proper burning of the cigarette.

What is claimed is:

1. A filter material for a cigarette consisting essentially of a kneaded and baked mixture of water, wheat flour and gluten and wherein said gluten and said wheat flour are present in a ratio of from 1:15 to 2:1 by weight.

2. The material of claim 1 wherein said material has a shape conforming to that of a cigarette.

3. A cigarette filter material as in claim 1 in which the baked mixture is crushed in the fonn of a coarse powder.

4. The cigarette filter material of claim 3 wherein the crushed baked mixture comprises coarse powder having a size of substantially smaller than 60 mesh. 

2. The material of claim 1 wherein said material has a shape conforming to that of a cigarette.
 3. A cigarette filter material as in claim 1 in which the baked mixture is crushed in the form of a coarse powder.
 4. The cigarette filter material of claim 3 wherein the crushed baked mixture comprises coarse powder having a size of substantially smaller than 60 mesh. 